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An intense, sharp, crushing non-Behemoth clone you simply must hear.-
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| Stillborn: Los Asesinos del Sur |
Black Metal, Death Metal
Ataman Productions, Pagan Records
September 1st, 2011
- Overture .966 - 1:13
- Hymn of Destruction - 3:11
- Diamonds of the Last Water - 2:49
- Antonym - 2:40
- Son of the Holy Motherfucker - 2:46
- Blood and Dust - 4:07
- Kot Wolanda - 1:55
- Los Asesinos del Sur - 6:08
- Stillborn II (Singularities of the Ordinary Vulgar Boor) - 3:24
- Whore of the Whores - 3:08
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| Review Information |
Release length: 31:21
Review posted on September 5th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 9.5/10 |
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
Satanas del Grande (2004) • Manifiesto de Blasfemia (2007) • Esta Rebelion es Eterna (2008) • Los Asesinos del Sur (2011)
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| Split(s): |
Death Monsters (2004)
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| Demo(s): |
Mirrormaze (1999) • Die in Torment 666 (2001) • Announcement of Forthcoming Desecration (Promo 2004) (2004)
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| Review |
Stillborn formed back in 1997, when the Black/Death Metal movement was not really that fresh, but it had it's own voice and not just a culmination of fans of Behemoth picking up instruments and metaphorically felating that well established group through musical plagiarism. Over the years, the group issued a few demos, but their first full-length did not actually hit until 2004. While the group's most recent offering, East Revelion es Eterna was met with mixed reviews, and their first two had a better reception, though still not the warmest from many fans and critics. This didn't stop Stillborn though, and the band returns with their latest Metal assault entitled Los Asesinos del Sur, the band's fourth full-length studio album. Does this one have what it takes to really break fans of the style from the idol-worship concepts and expectations?
Los Asesinos del Sur is a very intense and punishing album, there's no denying that. The audio quality of the recording is very deep and sets up a crushing atmosphere that mixes the brutality of Death Metal with a sinister Black Metal foundation. The drums sound fantastic here with loud, crashing cymbols and bass kicks that have just the right amount of loud clicks to them. The snares sound just as loud and natural as the cymbols as well, completing the package and really making the drums the more important instrument of the recording with it's intense machine gun-like pace, especially in the kicks, without succumbing to being solely blastbeats from start to finish, offering up a nice variety of high speed patterns to accomodate the sharp guitars and the speed in which the more Black Metal inspired riffs are played. Adding to it, the bass is loud in the mix and just adds that extra bit of bludgeoning sound to the guitars to enhance the overall brutal sound of the music. The vocals here are mostly performed with a rhaspier, more traditional Black Metal tone, which works great with the nice mixture of the styles, accomodating the sharper sound with the crushing heaviness perfectly and further keeping this band from being another carbon copy of the more popular acts of the style. While all this sounds clean enough to clearly sound modern and digital, the distortion and slightly rawer quality of the audio really completes the material being played perfectly and keeps the music from becoming sterilized, as well as from becoming an underground raw analog sounding Black Metal effort.
But, for as good as the music sounds on here, and it does sound really good, Los Asesinos del Sur starts off with the most annoying introduction you could really come across. It's not that it's a bad idea, as there are many bands in the Black Metal style that do this exact same thing, but "Overture .966" starts off with music that clearly is meant to set up "Hymn of Destruction", as well as the general atmosphere of the release. While the music does it well, the band uses the air raid alarm effect, and it's just really loud, starting off at the point where it dwarfs the music, but then gets quiter and allows the music to overtake it as far as the volume goes, eventually just fading out entirely. For the first thirty seconds of this track though, all you can really focus on is the alarm and how insanely irritating it is simply because of how loud they made it in the mix. Sadly, you won't really forget about it so soon, though it won't alter how you feel about the album, especially once "Hymn of Destruction" kicks in with it's more modern Black Metal influence against a crushing Death Metal sound and brutality. The faster pace of the music with the varied drums that match the speed of the guitars, yet also have enough variety to slow things down and become catchy even when the guitars don't really let up. From here, it's just one intense track after another with the band going straight for the juggular.
Of all the songs on this album though, "Son of the Holy Motherfucker" is perhaps the best, and not just because of the title of the song, or even the lyrics. The song itself just has a stronger Death Metal foundation to it that is just catchy as all hell and will make your head bang involuntarily from the moment the track starts to tear things up. The attitude given to the song as well is fantastic, and the fine amount of Black Metal included to the song really gives it a sinister vibe that really just takes things over the top, but given the song and the lyrics it's perfect and would have been a huge let down if it didn't go that far. Again the drums shine through perfectly with the loud bass kicks really making the most impact on here, and even some of the drumming at the very end that becomes nothing but pure adrenaline and jaw-dropping speed really kicks things up for this song. It's pretty short sadly and does kind of seem to end out of nowhere while still going somewhere, but in the end it doesn't matter and you'll want to go right back to this track head first. Even the following track "Blood and Dust" shines through on the release, but not so much for the same reasoning. The song is actually a little slower and feels more ritualistic at the start, but again it has that involuntary head banging catchiness to it matched with a later commanding authority that really just leaves the listener frozen in place as the song bludgeons you with everything it's got. The vocals that kick in later, though, are a bit iffy, as they start to tread into the common screaming territory for this style, and it honestly just doesn't work with this song and starts to show some Behemoth influence to it.
Overall, Los Asesinos del Sur is a fantastic album. The music is intense and furious with a great amount of speed but enough variety to that speed to make each track stand out. And when the songs start to slow down, that blistering intensity if waved for catchy brutality, adding more variety to the release, but all the while keeping their own sound and not coming off like every other band in the genre now except for one song that shows some Behemoth idol-worship. But, overall, Stillborn craft a nearly flawless album. In addition to that one song, the introduction can really be annoying at the start, but overall the song still perfectly establishes the atmosphere fo the album. Despite those few faults, Los Asesinos del Sur is a fantastic example of what you can do with the Black/Death Metal style other then copy Behemoth, and it's not just that aspect that makes this album great. Almost every song here is quality Metal and will have you coming back to the album time and time again. So, if you think that we've seen all the originality this style has to offer, this release is a breath of fresh air you simply need to experience.
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Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Ataman Productions and Pagan Records
via Godz ov War Productions.
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